story board

My movie the life cycle of a frog, can be useful in science, language and even math. My point of view is clear, life cycles are important. My dramatic question is how do life cycles work. The emotional content is that we as humans go through a life cycle. My voice is a way I personalize the story so my viewers will better understand. The information is presented clear,short and to the point. The duration of the movie is approximately 25 seconds. This may seem short but for children the time span is appropriate.

Clip #	Audio	Video	Duration
1 Add number here)	Narration: My movie is about the life cycle of a frog and the different stages a frog goes through before becoming a frog.	The movie starts with the image of frog eggs. It goes on to show the different stages such as embryo, tad pole and tad pole frog stages. It ends with an image of an adult frog.	The movie will last appox.25 seconds
	Sound Effects: Throughout the film my voice will narrate the images with description and useful information.	Effects: (Add notes here describing any effects or special shots that you want to use – i.e. special camera angles, lighting, special effects, type of shot) Include information for titles or text here.
	Transition: I will start to speak at the beginning of each image.	Transition: (The images will move when the viewer presses play.

LIFE CYCLES

How life cycles affect my world? The life cycle of a butterfly.

TEK's 112.2. Science

(7) Science concepts. The student knows that many types of change occur. The student is expected to:

(A) observe, describe, and record changes in size, mass, color, position, quantity, time, temperature, sound, and movement;

Knowledge and skills. 110.2. English Language Arts and Reading

(1) Listening/speaking/purposes. The student listens attentively and engages actively in a variety of oral language experiences. The student is expected to:

(A) determine the purpose(s) for listening such as to get information, to solve problems, and to enjoy and appreciate (K-3);

LEARNING OUTCOME- The learner will identify the life cycles of a butterfly through a SlideCast and will label appropriately.

TIMELINE FOR COMPLETION- 30 TO 45 minutes

VoiceThread

Because voicethread can hold any type of media such as images, documents and videos, the possibilities are endless. For my unit question, How do life cycles affect my world?, I would collect a series of images that represent my topic and add questions and comments for my students to discuss. My unit question can be integrated in different curriculum subjects. For example in geography, I can gather data about different types of life cycles and where they are found. In math we could determine how many life cycles there are in one area chart and compare the information.
As for my future curricular activities I would love to interact with a class from another place. I would like to try to start local maybe a class from another school campus. However my goal would be for my students to interact with other students from around the world. I believe this would set a good foundation for my students with the technology necessary to be successful.

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Place-based storytelling is one theoretical framework for storytelling. On Brenda Dycke's blog I learned about Jerome Burg, a high school teacher who created a project that combines Google Earth with great works of literature. Google lit trips allows the reader to read great literature and go along for the adventure. Burg believes that place-based storytelling will be successful because it puts the reader in the middle of the story and the reader is more apart of the literature.
Brenda Dycke came up with her own theory and use for digital storytelling. She used Google map to create a map of memories and meaning pertaining to her childhood. She not only had a story about each location she had the locations mapped out for viewers to follow. This would be a wonderful tool to use for geography or math. Students could find the distance from location to location.

Internet Resources

Internet resources seem to be unlimited. Working with elementary students I did not think that the internet was a safe place for them. However, with the right guidance and instruction the internet can be a very resourceful tool. I found so much information about my unit topic it was a bit overwhelming. As I worked through the information I did find that not all of the information was useful. The amount of videos and images was very impressive. I can think of so many ways to implement the internet in my classroom, power points, presentations, parent conference, just to name a few. The information is endless and so are its possibilities.

Blogs in my classroom

Working with elementary students, blogging did not even cross my mind. But while looking through David Warlick's website I found that blogging can be incorporated in the classroom. It is a great way to keep the lines of communication open among staff, on and off campus. I work in a special education/inclusion classroom so we always get students from other campuses, blogging would be a great tool to use to share important information. I am constantly looking for new ways to engage my students, through blogging teachers can share ideas and strategies.

Blogging would be a great group project for students in middle and high school. Even a class would be great. Introducing this technology at an early stage will only benefit the students. Unlike me I have never taken a class like this. I do wish I had the opportunity at an earlier stage of educational career. This is how the world communicates and we need to better prepare our students sooner rather than later.

need for inquiry/project learning

My essential question is how life cycles affect my world. Inquiry based learning is so important for this question. The students can talk and exchange information about what they know about life cycles and the affect it has on each students world. Every student may have a different answer and this is why inquiry based learning is important.

Three unit questions: How life cycles are connected? How do life cycles work? Who or what can have a life cycle? Project based learning can play a key role in any of these questions. Life cycles can be compared / contrasted and graphed to show the found information. The connection between life cycles and how it affects the food chain.

hello everyone, I DID IT.